1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network terminal device, a delivery server, and a client/server system. In particular, the present invention relates to a network terminal device that has neither an operating system (OS) nor application data previously installed therein but acquires an operating system and application data via a network to run them, a delivery server used therefor, and a client/server system used therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
With recent development of the communications technology and recent spread of network infrastructures, it has become possible to download, via a network, an application running on an operating system (OS) (that is, a program running on an OS, referred to as application program hereinafter) or data used by the application program (referred to collectively as application data hereinafter) to a general-purpose information processor, such as a personal computer (PC), or a terminal device, such as an arcade video game machine designed for networking.
According to a conventional method, application data is downloaded from a network file server (NFS) retaining the application data to a plurality of terminal devices via a network to update application data in the terminal devices to a new version or replace application data in the terminal devices with another application program, thereby always keeping the terminal devices installed with the latest program. Such a method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-73266.